My family's never been one for Christmas. My dad's got an anti-christian streak in him so he ignores this holiday... though I think the real reason is that he's just a stringy old fart.

So for the last 10 years or so all the Xmas gifts I got were just token trinkets from friends, colleagues and such.

My girlfriend and I spent our first Xmas together last year. I was going to get her a set of Big Bird in China/Japan DVDs since she loved those shows. But she went ahead and ordered them frm Amazon before I could. I ended up customising a smurf to look like her instead.

When we exchanged gifts, I found out that along with her amazon order, she had gotten me a fairy book by Cicley Mary Barker. I had mentioned in passing that I had fallen in love with it after seeing it in the UK, but due to the horrible exchange rates I couldn't afford it then.

Ah the Kenner DeathStar Space station... That's the toy that directly led to me finding out that there was no Santa.

Gah!

For me it was the toy that convinced me there WAS a Santa, because there's no way my parents would ever be able afford something THAT AMAZING for me. ...and about five years later, my adding the Jabba the Hutt Dungeon to my Christmas List on Christmas Eve let my parents know I'd been snooping through their closets, and they took it back to the store so I wouldn't have it. Star Wars and Christmas. They just kind of...go together for me.

I know I must have got the Death Star and Millennium Falcon for Xmas or a birthday (most likely xmas due to the size of them) but I have no memory of receiving them, just owning them.

I was a military brat with two older sisters, so I didn't get a whole lot, but I had nearly every Star Wars figure and playset/vehicle so I wasn't doing too bad. Looking back, I have to say my Mom and Dad went out of their way to fulfill a Star Wars mania that I'm sure they didn't understand. But I think that's all I ever asked for for every possible occasion for a 5-6 year period, so when I got stuff kind of fades.

In any case, my loathing of birthdays and holidays started early so I have very few memories of them that I didn't block out. If it wasn't for my co-workers decorating my office this year I wouldn't even remember my last birthday...but you don't forget white-hot rage that easily.

But the one present I do remember that in retrospect is my best present ever was at the time a minor one: This comic that my Mom put in as a stocking stuffer in 1980.

I was 11 years old, and had read comics when I was younger like Richie Rich and the Disney stuff, but hadn't looked at them for at least 3 years at that point. And I had the original Star Wars adaptation, and a few random issues after that (#11 & 13, I'm pretty sure) but didn't really get into them as a 7 year old.

But for some reason, #44 changed me. it was the final issue of TESB adaptation, and I had to find the previous four issue no longer on stands (remember comic stands at the local convenience store?) so I asked around at school as was lend to a hole-in-the-wall used bookstore called "Bea's Variety Shop" run by an old Korean war vet. In the back he had this dark room full of long boxes, underneath them boxes and boxes of trading cards! I found a few on the issues I needed and bought some pack of TESB cards. I started going there every week whenever I had spare change, and "Bea" (That's what us kids called him; I never knew his real name) would cut us a deal on a stack of comics and cards. After a few weeks, he told me a secret my life: when I asked him if he could get some of the comics to fill gaps in my Star Wars collection, he said that he might be able to, but the comic shop in San Antonio would probably have everything I was looking for.

Comic shop?!? What's a comic shop?

So I talked my Dad into stopping at this comic shop next time we went into town. And there it was...rack after rack of brand new comics every week! And *tons* of back issues! It still took a couple of years to get the full Star Wars run up to that point, but after the first year I was hooked on picking up those new comics every week.

Coming up empty handed one trip led me to pick up some Spider-Man comics. Then I got every issue of "Marvel tales" I could to get caught up on that. Then Spider-Man #162 led me to the X-Men. My fate was sealed. I think by 1982 I was picking up nearly every new issue of Marvel comics I could find. Didn't get into DC until late high school. And once the comic bug hit hard, I ditched the toys like a bad habit.

Ironically, it was finding out about Super Powers in college that ignited the collecting mania again. I was petering out on comics by then (and an apartment flood a year later wiped out my collection and quit me collecting for good). But that one comic book arguably led to everything I am today: my career, my websites, and my toy historian rep.

[quote="RaiderXWW"]When I was little, I was spoiled, completly and utterly. My dad only got one toy a year when he was little and that was at Christams, so when I was born he decided I would have every toy I cpuld ever want. [quote]

This was a fun thread to read. While my parent's were not quite so generous, in some ways my situation was similar to RaiderXWW's. Dad's parents were blind and didn't have much money, and Mom's family was dirt poor from the reservation. She used to get an orange for Christmas and that's it. So yeah, for Christmas and birthdays they would often go all out for us. I think it was mostly Mom's doing, because to this day Dad talks about what a pain in the ass it was shopping for toys. Plus, Mom would once in awhile let us get a toy when we'd go to the store but with Dad it was only on birthdays and Christmas or some other special occasion.

The absolute best present I ever received was Christmas 1984 when I was 8 years old and my brother was 6. We got the entire first wave of Super Powers figures and vehicles/playsets. My brother and I already had Batman/Robin, GL (he was the Riddler for us), and the Joker, and were hoping for the Batmobile and Penguin. It was a huge and unbelievable surprise to find all 12 figures (we'd already broken one of Batman's ears and Joker's mallet, so now we had new ones) and vehicles PLUS the Hall of Justice. We were the only kids I ever knew who had the Hall of Justice.

I've since bought Batman and Robin with the Batmobile on ebay and showed my Mom, telling her how special it was to me as a child.